306 Sir EH . H. Howorth—On the Arctie Lands. 
more temperate climate prevailed, and notably in the days of the 
Norwegian Settlement. The ice has in many places encroached upon 
the dwellings and hunting grounds of the Esquimaux, which are no 
longer habitable, and the skulls of Musk Sheep, etc., have occurred 
where these animals can no longer find feeding ground. 
Of late years, says Nordenskiold, the rowing of an umiak in Tessiur- 
sarsoak has been rendered difficult by ice-blocks fallen from the 
glacier, which is said not to have been the case formerly ; and one 
of our rowers, Henry Sissarniak, even affirms that he rowed without 
obstruction seven years ago round an island which now forms a 
peninsula jutting out from the margin of the inland ice. Many 
similar examples in North Greenland are adduced, thus for example, 
the glacier that issues into Blaisedal, near Godhavn, has since the 
time when Dr. Rink mapped that place advanced much further into 
the valley; in the fjords around Omenak the ice has advanced 
considerably within the memory of man; a path, formerly often 
frequented between Sarfarfik and Sakkak, is now closed by inland 
ice, ete., etc. A similar case occurs in Jakobshavn. In a word, he 
says, there can be no doubt that in many parts of North Greenland, 
the inland ice is certainly gaining ground. 
There is no doubt on my mind, says Kane, that at a time within 
historical and even recent limits the climate of this region (i.e. 
Greenland) was milder than it is now. . . . The stone huts of the 
natives are found scattered along the line of the bay in spots now 
so fenced in by ice as to preclude all possibility of hunting and 
of course of habitation by men who rely on it for subsistence. 
Tradition points to these as once favourite hunting grounds near 
open water. At Rensselaer Harbour, called by the natives Annatak, 
or the Thawing place, we met with huts in quite tolerable preser- 
vation, with the stone pedestals still standing which used to sustain 
the carcases of the captured seals and walruses. Sunny Gorge, and 
a large indentation in Dallas Bay which bears the Hsquimaux name 
of the Inhabited Place, showed us the remains of a village, surrounded 
by the bones of seals, walruses and whales, all now cased in ice. 
(Arctic Explorations I. p. 8308-9.) Giesecke noted long ago that the ad- 
vance of the glaciers at Disco and Noursoak can be noted year by year. 
If this be the evidence of more recent times we can supplement 
it by evidence of another kind. The great sea of inland ice in 
Greenland is dotted with islets of rock, etc., which are known to 
the Greenlanders as Nunataks. The unweathered and rugged out- 
lines of these projecting rocks show they have never been smothered 
by ice, but they are remarkable in another way. Quite a consider- 
able number of plants have been collected from these Nunataks 
by the Scandinavian naturalists, and as they are isolated and often 
situated at a long distance from each other, I know of no explanation 
which will account for this phenomenon except the fact that these 
Nunataks, instead of having been at no remote time parts of a 
continuous land surface with a more moderate climate, were smothered 
in ice and snow, as they must have been, according to the theories 
current about the condition of Greenland, in the so-called Glacial 
age. It is quite impossible to suppose that these rocks situated 
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